“EVERY wise woman” (saith the Wisdom of God) “buildeth her house; but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” As all readers of these pages are builders in the sense above implied, it should be of the utmost importance to them to know whether they be wise or foolish.
The literal meaning of the foregoing quotation from the Proverbs appears to point to a good wife, who, by her fidelity to her husband and constant care of her household, builds up her house. She is the virtuous woman who is a crown to her husband. “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her; she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” On the contrary, a foolish woman, by her unfaithfulness and constant neglect of her household, plucks her house down with her hands, and “is as rottenness in (the) bones” of her husband.
In a moral sense, we may understand the figure of the wise woman who builds her house, to set forth one who, with some fear of God before her eyes, builds up by integrity and uprightness a good moral character, and lives in a clear conscience of honesty toward her fellows. Whereas, the foolish, who plucks her house down with her hands, is descriptive of a person who with a defiled conscience, destitute of all fear of God, pulls down those principles of righteousness which God has placed in man for the well-being of society.
But, leaving the literal and moral bearing of the subject, we purpose using the figure of the house as a spiritual building, and the “wise woman” as a representative builder. In preparing a foundation for a building, digging is invariably necessary in order to find the virgin soil or bed rock which really forms the foundation, as it supports the materials placed upon it. So a wise woman, who intends to build her house spiritually, digs first for a foundation. In digging, she finds much loose soil to remove before reaching a firm basis. Her good intentions look fair, but are found too shifting; her good resolves are no better; her own goodness seems very favorable ground, but this, with her other fleshly things, proves worthless for a foundation. She labors on and on, till everything useless is swept away, and at length, he finds the rock Christ Jesus, the Divinity and spotless humanity of the Son of God, the foundation of her spiritual house. “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.”
The apostle Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, says, “Ye are God’s building.” But he also remarks, “We are laborers together with God.” He affirms that no other foundation but Jesus Christ can be laid, but he gives this caution: “Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.” The building must be God-like and worthy of the foundation; therefore only such materials which are comparable to gold, silver. precious stones, and will stand the fire of trial, temptation, and persecution, should have a place in the building; for If any man’s work abide, he shall receive a reward. “But for our encouragement it is written, “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
“Through wisdom is a house builded.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning and completion of every spiritual house. Cornelius, the centurion of the Italian band, built his house by the fear of God; hence, we read he was “a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.”And in the vision of the angel who came to him, he was thus addressed: “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” The Lord recognized him as His workmanship, and directed him to the means whereby he and his house were built by faith on the rock Jesus Christ; and he appears in the Scripture as the first lively stone of the Gentile church. “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.”
Further, it is said of a spiritual house; “by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”
“Faith is by knowledge fed
And with obedience mixed.”
“That the soul be without knowledge is not good.” The greatest of all knowledge is to rightly know ourselves, for if we know ourselves we shall have room for another infinitely better than ourselves, viz., “Christ within you, the hope of glory.”
The reception chamber of the house, the new heart of flesh, receives the word of God as the good ground hearer does the seed; and, having received it, “the good man out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good.”
The dining-chamber of the house contains discernment, whereby the soul knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good; and even “a dry morsel and quietness therewith” will be better than “an house full of sacrifices with strife.”
The sleeping-chambers abound with peace, where the house is built with wisdom and knowledge. In them thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet, for the Lord giveth His beloved sleep.
The whole fabric of a spiritual house cannot be fully complete without charity. “I wisdom dwell with prudence,” and in such companionship charity is found. She suffers long, and is kind; will not vaunt herself or be puffed up; will not behave herself unseemly; will not seek her own; will think no evil. She will bear all things, believe all things, and will never fail. A house without her is nothing, comparable to an instrument of sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
The apostle Paul, when Saul of Tarsus, labored hard to destroy every building of God; and in so doing he was like the foolish woman plucking his own house down with his hands. But when it pleased God to call him by almighty grace, and place him on the foundation stone laid in Zion, he more earnestly labored to build that which he had previously tried to pluck down. To this end he willingly suffered all kinds of persecution, dangers, difficulties, distresses, losses, pains, and became a servant to all. And as the minister of God, he suffered “in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned. By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; unknown, and yet well known; as dying,. and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things.” Thus he was as the “wise woman, who, buildeth her house,” and the contrast of the foolish one, who plucketh her house down with her hands. Such is the case with all who follow the way of their own heart, whether that way be religious or profane. “He that sinneth against Me,” saith the Wisdom of God, “wrongs his own soul, all they that hate Me love death.” By unbelief and by sin the building of their house is plucked down with their hands. “The wicked are overthrown, and are not; but the house of the righteous shall stand.” “The house of the wicked shall be overthrown; but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish.”
New Cross. S. B.